SBI identifies law enforcers who fired first shots at protesters on Feb 20, 2014
The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has reported suspicion to a former company commander of the Berkut riot police in Sevastopol and a policeman from this detachment who were the direct executors of the mass shooting at Maidan activists on February 20, 2014.
"The SBI has reported suspicion to a former commander of a company of the Berkut special detachment of the Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Sevastopol and one of policemen from this detachment. They were the direct executors of the mass shooting at Maidan activists and were in fact the first to start shooting at the protesters," the SBI said on its website on Wednesday.
As the investigation established, on February 20, 2014, on Kyiv's Instytutska Street, "these officers of the Berkut special police carried out the order of senior management and used firearms equipped with lead buckshot cartridges against protest participants. Directly because of them, three protesters died, and another three were inflicted with gunshot wounds of varying severity."
It is noted that their shots actually became the impetus for the continuation of deliberate killings of protest participants, already with the use of rifled service automatic and sniper firearms, by fighters of the special forces of the Kyiv-based Berkut (the so-called "black company") and internal troops of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine. Because of their actions, 48 protesters died and another 90 sustained gunshot wounds.
"After these events, the commander of the Sevastopol Berkut, together with the employees of the unit he led, fled to Sevastopol to avoid responsibility, where they subsequently went over to the enemy side and contributed to the annexation of the peninsula," the SBI said.
The pre-trial investigation into this episode of criminal acts continues. For committing these crimes, the commander of the Sevastopol Berkut and his subordinate face punishment in the form of imprisonment from ten to fifteen years or life imprisonment.
Procedural guidance in the proceedings is carried out by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.